{"id":362776,"date":"2026-08-04T20:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/362776\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T20:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:08:09","slug":"orlando-city-begins-leagues-cup-play-against-monterrey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/362776\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando City begins Leagues Cup play against Monterrey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antoine Griezmann and Orlando City open Leagues Cup play Wednesday against CF Monterrey after a 3-2 loss at Red Bull New York<\/a> on Saturday erased the momentum from two consecutive wins to start the post-World Cup schedule.<\/p>\n

Orlando (6-10-2, 20 points) is 12th in the MLS Eastern Conference. Monterrey finished 13th in the Liga MX Clausura and missed the playoffs. Kickoff at Inter.co Stadium is at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun. We know that they have some good players, and we had some good matchups against Tigres the last couple of years,\u201d Orlando captain and defender Robin Jansson said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting. Hopefully, a lot of people are at the stadium watching the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Leagues Cup uses a no-draw format. Regulation wins are worth three points, shootout wins two and shootout losses one. The top four MLS clubs and top four Liga MX clubs from Phase One advance to single-elimination quarterfinals. Orlando plays three Phase One matches, all at home, against Liga MX opponents.<\/p>\n

Griezmann has played all three matches for Orlando since the World Cup break, but he cannot carry the team on his own. The availability of Mart\u00edn Ojeda (11 MLS goals, thigh issue) and forward Daryl Dike for Wednesday is uncertain. If neither plays, Griezmann carries the attacking load with Tyrese Spicer and Justin Ellis, who has five assists this season and three over the past three matches.<\/p>\n

Monterrey is a club in transition. The Rayados sold leading scorer Germ\u00e1n Berterame to Inter Miami for a club-record $15 million in January and lost midfielder Sergio Canales to Racing Santander. Head coach Mat\u00edas Almeyda, who managed the San Jose Earthquakes in MLS from 2019 to 2022, was hired in May to rebuild after the club\u2019s Clausura collapse. Wednesday is his first competitive match outside Liga MX with the club after winning two of his opening three matches in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going into the game mainly focused on ourselves, but then at the end of the day, you always get instructions, information about your opponents, which is good to have,\u201d Jansson added. \u201cSo we know what they\u2019re good at and where we maybe can expose them, which we hope for (Wednesday).\u201d<\/p>\n

Spaniard Oliver Torres is the primary playmaker, with new signing Hugo Cuypers playing up top after joining from the Chicago Fire. Argentine winger Lucas Ocampos scored seven goals with six assists last season, and Luca Orellano, an MLS All-Star with FC Cincinnati in 2024, adds speed on the flank.<\/p>\n

Monterrey has the passing quality to control possession, and Orlando has allowed more than two goals per match in MLS play this season. The two shutouts after the break raised the question of whether interim head coach Mart\u00edn Perelman had found something defensively. Saturday\u2019s result against New York put that back in doubt.<\/p>\n

Orlando hosts Club Le\u00f3n on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in its second Phase One match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann and Orlando City open Leagues Cup play Wednesday against CF Monterrey after a 3-2 loss at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,4788,141,140,2062,76046,110],"class_list":["post-362776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-soccer","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}